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Kipnis' breakout year leads Tribe's GIBBY nods

Kipnis' breakout year leads Tribe's GIBBY nods

The Indians' Jason Kipnis collected 160 hits during the regular season, earning him a GIBBY nod for Breakout Hitter of the Year

By Jordan Bastian
/
MLB.com |

CLEVELAND -- There was a point early last season when it seemed fair to wonder if Jason Kipnis was ready to handle being the third hitter in the Indians' lineup. Cleveland manager Terry Francona preached patience throughout the second baseman's April struggles.

Kipnis turned out just fine, emerging as the Tribe's most versatile offensive weapon in 2013.

"It was fun to watch," Francona said at the end of the season. "The first three weeks, everybody kept saying, 'When are you going to drop him in the batting order?' I said, 'Just leave him alone,' and then we watched him turn into one of the better players in the league."

Kipnis' performance is now being recognized as part of this year's Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards, which have the Tribe's All-Star second baseman as one of eight candidates in the "breakout hitter" category. Kipnis' behind-the-back flip to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera for a ninth-inning out against the Tigers on May 11 is also in the running for the season's top play.

Besides Kipnis, the Indians have Francona as a candidate for baseball's top manager honor and general manager Chris Antonetti up for the top executive award. Jason Giambi's Sept. 24 pinch-hit, walk-off blast against the White Sox is in contention for the season's best walk-off moment.

Major League Baseball's A-listers will take home 2013 GIBBY trophies -- the ultimate honors of the industry's awards season -- based on votes by media, front-office personnel, MLB alumni, fans at MLB.com and the Society for American Baseball Research.

Antonetti's overhauling of Cleveland's roster last winter helped the team quickly turn the page on a 94-loss showing in 2012. This past season, the Indians won 92 games -- matching the franchise's best one-year win improvement, excluding strike-shortened seasons -- and clinched the American League's top Wild Card spot. Francona led the way in his first season in the manager's chair for the Tribe.

In 149 games for the Indians in 2013, Kipnis hit .284 with 17 home runs, 36 doubles and a team-high 84 RBIs, becoming the first Tribe second baseman to lead the club outright in RBIs since Joe Gordon accomplished the feat in 1948. Kipnis added 30 stolen bases, 76 walks and 86 runs scored in his first All-Star season for Cleveland.

Kipnis also became just the fourth player in Indians history to have at least 15 homers, 30 stolen bases, 75 walks and 85 runs in one season. The others on that list include Grady Sizemore (2007, '08), Roberto Alomar (1999, '01) and Kenny Lofton ('00). Only Sizemore ('08) and Alomar ('99 and '01) added at least 80 RBIs to the mix.

"As we got closer and closer to the end," Francona said, "[Kipnis] was seeing it more and more. It's fun when you see young players start to get it -- what winning means, as opposed to just getting hits. It was fun to watch. He took it about as hard as anybody that night that we lost [the Wild Card Game]. He'll be very hungry to want another shot at it."